Why do we not have a postal vote

[Complainer]

Postal voting (or any kind of voting outside of a polling booth) opens up the risk of vote selling, and voting under duress.

 

[Sunny]

Postal voting (or any kind of voting outside of a polling booth) opens up the risk of vote selling, and voting under duress.

Is there evidence of that happening in any Country that uses the system?

 

[Complainer]

Is there evidence of that happening in any Country that uses the system?

Given that it happens in people's own homes, it's a little bit hard to find evidence.

 

[dereko1969]

Is there evidence of that happening in any Country that uses the system?

There were a number of investigations in the UK regarding "dodgy" postal voting in the last election and particularly in the local elections prior to that.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/06/men-jailed-attempted-postal-vote-fraud

 

[Berni]

But all US citizens at home and abroad are allowed to vote. Despite the fact that obviously they are abroad they don't pay tax, yet they can vote for the president, I am not sure if they can vote for senators.

US citizens do pay tax there, regardless of where they actually live.
Nothing short of renouncing their citizenship gets them off the hook.

 

[pinkyBear]

Hi Bernie, OK US citizens living in the states pay tax to the US government. However if US Citizens are living abroad do they still pay tax to the US government???
P..

 

[Sunny]

Hi Bernie, OK US citizens living in the states pay tax to the US government. However if US Citizens are living abroad do they still pay tax to the US government???
P..

Yes, if they earn over a certain amount.

 

[Sunny]

There were a number of investigations in the UK regarding "dodgy" postal voting in the last election and particularly in the local elections prior to that.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/06/men-jailed-attempted-postal-vote-fraud

There are stories about dodgy voting with or without a postal vote. Look at the US. Look at us and how many people are registered to vote more than once because of the mess of our register.

 

[Purple]

Yes, if they earn over a certain amount.

Yep, and if their country of residence doesn't have a mutual taxation agreement with the USA then they have to pay the full liability.

BTW, anyone with a green card (the right to residency in the USA) has to pay US taxes, even if they don't live there. So if you used to live in America with a green card you should be making a US tax return.

 

[Mrs Vimes]

Postal voting (or any kind of voting outside of a polling booth) opens up the risk of vote selling, and voting under duress.

I am one of the rare breed who have actually cast a postal vote (I was working in Dublin in 1997 and registered to vote in my parents' constituency).

We have a surprisingly sensible solution to the obvious difficulty of duress - to cast the vote you have to attend a Garda Station with the blank ballot and some ID. The Garda stamps the ballot, leaves you to fill it in and then takes it from you in a sealed envelope and posts it. Foolproof (as far as I could see)

Sybil

 

[Complainer]

I am one of the rare breed who have actually cast a postal vote (I was working in Dublin in 1997 and registered to vote in my parents' constituency).

We have a surprisingly sensible solution to the obvious difficulty of duress - to cast the vote you have to attend a Garda Station with the blank ballot and some ID. The Garda stamps the ballot, leaves you to fill it in and then takes it from you in a sealed envelope and posts it. Foolproof (as far as I could see)

Sybil

But not a scalable solution - this works because there are a fairly small number of postal voters. If this was to be made more widespread, it would not be practicable for large numbers of voters to be supervised at Garda stations.